Sunday, April 10, 2016

The Originals, Season Three, Episode Seventeen: Beyond the Black Horizon

When we last left off, Christian had kidnapped The Originals's eternal victim Freya, with the help of Vincent. It seems that the ancestors will stop at nothing to rid the world of the Originals, thus giving Vincent no choice but to help Christian with his infernal plans. As for Klaus and Hayley, having discovered that Christian has been very busy kidnapping wolves, they decide to follow the trail, certain that Christian's kidnapping of Freya must be connected to his experimentation with the wolves.

Vincent really doesn't want to help Christian, so he arranges for Davina to get a vial of blood so that she can use his former connection with Finn to track him. Kol, who is increasingly out of control is incensed with the idea of Davina helping, given that it wasn't long ago that Finn tried to kill her. I for one am disappointed that Finn failed at this. If ever a character on The Originals needs mushing, it's Davina Claire.

It's decided that Kol and Davina will stay behind to work on the spell while Elijah and Finn head out to try and stop Christian. The Originals at this point very much telegraphs who is going to die this episode by suddenly giving Finn real characterisation. For the most part, every time Finn has appeared, on either The Originals or The Vampire Diaries, it's all been about how much he hates his family. He's been either the mustache twirling villain, or the earnest evil completely caught up in the evil of The Originals existence. In The Devil Comes Here and Sighs, a good amount of time is spent dealing with the pain Finn felt when he was daggered because slowly he became aware of the passage of time and his absolute loneliness. Slowly, Elijah begins to warm to his brother, finally seeing things from Finn's perspective for the first time. Thus, Finn becomes a target and his death assured because he has been made empathetic.

Naturally, it all leads back to Mystic Falls, where Esther made her family the very first vampires in existence. Christian's big plan is not only to become an Original but an upgrade. We learn that this is why he has collected wolf venom from the original werewolf families. Klaus and Hayley each come from an Original line; however, each only has one line flowing through their bodies whereas, Christian now has all seven.

When Hayley needs a magical item to boost her tracking spell, she turns to Cami. Kol is angry that Cami's family has gathered all of the magical items he created in the 1800's. Davina has to tell Kol to back off when he threatens violence against Cami. Was anyone else wondering why this thousand year old vampire is taking orders from a teenage girl? Cami becomes convinced that Kol has been cursed.

In Mystic Falls, who should Finn and Elijah run into but Matt, who still isn't dead for some reason. Matt decides that he has to get involved. Finn's connection to Vincent is made and the threesome (one of whom is useless) confront Christian, who is predictably holding Freya at knife point. Finn grabs Matt's gun and shoots Freya through the shoulder and the bullet hits Christian in the chest. The brothers rush to give Freya vampire blood and she manages to spit out that killing Christian is exactly what he wanted.

Christian rises from the dead and he is now an uber Original. The fight is on and Christian easily overpowers both Finn and Elijah. For his trouble, Finn is bitten by Christian and Freya puts up a barrier spell forcing Christian to back off.

Back at the vampire compound, Klaus has arrived to give Finn his blood to save him. Finn has a moment where he appreciates his siblings, saying that he finally understands the family saying, "always and forever" before spitting up blood. The Originals quickly realise that Klaus's blood is not in fact saving Finn, A desperate Freya demands her locket hoping to place Finn's soul inside before he can expire because now that there's no other side, this means that if Finn dies, he'll be permanently dead. Given that death is never final in this universe, we all know that Finn will be back at some point right? Because Davina bound Finn to his body, this means his soul cannot be moved. The siblings gather around Finn as he dies.

Vincent arrives to see Davina. They discuss what the ancestors made him do and Davina reveals that Kol has been cursed by the ancestors. Together, they decide that it's time to deal with the ancestors because they are tired of being played with like puppets on a string and then discarded the moment they are no longer needed. Damn it, they've found yet another story line for Davina so I suppose the mushing she needs is once again on hold.

Later, they gather with an urn to say their final goodbyes and as usual, Kol is not very forgiving. They then discuss the fact that Christian created two vials of uber Original maker potion. Freya wonders if this means that the first dose will wear off after awhile. Klaus quickly puts the pieces together and heads to the dungeon where he locked up Aurora and predictably, she is gone.

Christian becoming an uber Original makes absolute sense given that the Original family is strong they're difficult to create an antagonist for. With Christian and Aurora as uber Originals, they finally have enemies who are worthy of them. This is the first time since the series began that I can suspend disbelief enough to see an antagonist as an actual challenge. I hope that this storyline rides out for a bit and not quickly wrapped up at the end of the season.

Aurora being alive is just as irritating to me as Davina still being alive. We all knew the moment that Klaus bricked her into a wall that she would be back. Aurora and Davina serve as an example that without their uber powers, the Original family would be done for. When you have a chance to end an enemy you take care of them, what you don't do is create some elaborate trap that will come back to bite you. Similarly given all the harm that Davina has caused, despite the many threats she has received, she is still alive. I can think of no reason on earth why Klaus has not put an end to her irritating existence already.

Freya being kidnapped has become more than habit on this show. Why is she the weak point constantly? Yes, she's not an original vampire but she is supposed to be a very powerful witch. This is one of the many failings with the Vampire Diaries and Originals universe. We have seen witches be strong enough to make a vampire clutch their head and fall to their knees and we have seen them easily defeated and treated like nothing. I can get that there are strong witch and that there are weak witches by why does the power of each individual witch constantly fluctuate based on what the story needs them to do? Can we please just have some consistency, rather than the lazy writing?